ICC justifies selecting Modi, Manohar for new subcommittee

Dubai, Oct 15 (IANS) Lalit Modi and Shashank Manohar being on the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) new subcommittee formed to decide on what constitutes official cricket is not a conflict of interest even though the Indian board is going to open a dialogue with the Indian Cricket League (ICL), according to the sport’s governing body.”It’s nothing but a working group. Those proposals come through to the full executive board,” ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat told reporters here Wednesday after the conclusion of the ICC board’s two-day meeting.

“Ultimately it is the executive board — the full board — that will take a decision on those regulations,” he said.

Foremost on the subcommittee’s agenda will be addressing the issue of recognition of Subhash Chandra’s Zee Sports-backed ICL Twenty20 tournament, which has been banned as a rebel event by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

ICL players are also not allowed to play for India’s national side.

While Manohar is the BCCI president, Modi is its vice-president and also the chairman of the rival Indian Premier League (IPL), which has the board’s backing.

Following receipt of an application from the ICL organisers for official recognition of the tournament, the ICC has deputed Manohar to hold discussions with ICL representatives and also formed the new subcommittee.

Apart from Manohar and Modi, other members of the subcommittee are ICC head of legal David Becker, England and Wales Cricket Board chairman Giles Clarke and former Cricket South Africa president Norman Arendse.

According to Lorgat, the working group has been formed with weightage being given to legal experience of its members.

“The working group is also supported by our legal advisers. In terms of the representation, it had a weighting of legally trained people as you would expect and Manohar is one such person - like Norman Arendse and our in-house legal people.”

“It is very much weighted in favour of legal representation because it is a complex legal issue,” he stressed.

Regarding Modi, Lorgat said the IPL chairman was needed for “getting a perspective”.

“As for Modi’s involvement, in fact, is to bring a perspective to that working group that we were looking for,” he said.

According to ICC president David Morgan, the membership of the subcommittee was entirely appropriate given the task in hand.

“Within the conferring of that working group, their duty is to the ICC and I am satisfied absolutely that they have operated on that basis,” he said.

Lorgat added that BCCI would start discussions with ICL representatives in a few days.

“We are considering their application and as part of that process, the BCCI requested us to have discussions with ICL representatives, which they will have in the next few days,” he told IANS.

“We will wait for the written report and then carry on with our considerations of their application,” he said.